The Standard for Certified Purity.™

Month: August 2013

Check out these great and unusual facts, compiled by List 25, that you may have never heard before.

If you do not have time to watch the video we have written them out for you:

25. The average human spends 6 years of his or her life dreaming.

24. Ancient Romans submitted their significant or unusual dreams to the Senate for interpretation.

23. The Beatty Papyrus is the oldest dream dictionary in existence. It was written around 1350 B.C.

22. Birth order influences the world of progression of dreams. Men generally dream about more violence, and first-born females tend to have more aggressive characters. On the other hand, first-born males tend to dream about themselves in a more positive light than their younger siblings.

21. People who grew up watching black-and-white TV when they were younger dream in more monochrome settings while people who grew up watching color TV have more vivid and colorful dreams.

20. Visually impaired people dream too. Those who lost their sight later in life can see visual images in their dreams, while blind people who don’t dream visually can dream in sound, smell, and touch.

19. We only dream of faces of real people we have encountered but might not remember, because people usually see hundreds of faces every day.

18. Between 18 – 38% of people say they have experienced at least one precognitive dream, and about 70% have experienced déjà vu.

17. Daydreaming, according to psychologists, may be related to dreams that occurred during sleep. However, they require different mental processes.

16. Within 5 minutes of waking up, half of dreams are forgotten. Within 10 minutes, 90% are forgotten. In just 10 minutes, however, people are more likely to remember their dreams when they are awakened during REM sleep.

15. Dreams of unpreparedness, falling, flying, and public humiliation come from common human anxieties and seem to transcend social and economic boundaries.

14. The inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Howe, said the cannibals who chased him in his nightmares held spears that looked like the needle he designed.

13. Falling dreams typically occur in the early stages of sleep. The muscle spasms of these dreams are called “myoclonic jerks.”

12. Even fetuses in the womb dream. Even with the lack of visual stimuli, scientists think their dreams come from sound and touch sensations.

11. Experienced by 40% of the population, sleep paralysis occurs when a sleeper awakens and recognizes his or her surroundings, but is unable to move for up to one minute.

10. Around 70% of characters in men’s dreams are other men, whereas women dream of an equal amount of men and women.

9. Plato believed that dreams originate in the organs of the belly. He described the liver as the “biological seed of the dreams.”

8. Research involving students suggests that waking someone up at the beginning of REM stage of sleep can cause irritability and hallucinations, and can eventually lead to psychosis.

7. William Shakespeare used dreams to help develop characters and advance the plot in many of his plays.

6. The Greeks regarded dreams as messages from the gods, and would sometimes sleep in sacred places to conjure significant dreams.

5. Children tend to have shorter dreams than adults do, and 40% of them are nightmares. Scientists believe this is because dreams act as a coping mechanism.

4. Studies have revealed that animals (mammals in particular) dream just like humans.

3. Known as “Dream Incorporation,” while sleeping you may include or incorporate sounds and stimuli from your surrounding environment into your dream. For example, if your brother is playing a loud guitar next door, you may dream you are at a concert.

2. The word “dream” is most related to the West Germanic “draugmus,” meaning “deception,” “illusion,” or “phantom.”

1. Toddlers do not appear in their own dreams until the age of 3 or 4.

It is time for the kiddos to go back to school. Whether they are starting off their first year of school in kindergarten or finishing their last semesters at college, every student can take a step toward being more conscious of the world we all live in.

Here are some great first leaps to make to help preserve our precious resources!

1. Recycled Supplies:

TreeSmart is a company based in Oregon that makes pencils and rulers out of recycled newspapers! They also make recycled crayons, pens and coloring booklets that have educational messages about recycling, endangered species and ways to help the environment.

Have a small nub of a crayon left that seems unusable? Donate it to Crazy Crayons, which makes 100% recycled crayons from unwanted crayons collected by The National Crayon Recycle Program. They collect old crayon stubs and melt them down to liquid, then pour them into cute and funky moulds to give the crayons new life!

2. Pack it in:

One of the best ways to recycle for the coming school year, is to reuse your old backpack, or swapping with a sibling or a friend can give everyone a new pack. If you are in need of a new one however, EcoGear provides very stylish and certified organic cotton backpacks for kids of every age. The Panda Eco-Pack Backpack in particular is great because it uses minimal plastic as well as being the perfect smaller size for young kids in school.

3. Lunch with Love:

It might be adorable to tell your lil’ one on their first day of school how much you love them on the outside of their brown bagged lunch. By getting reusable containers for your kids to take lunch in. Reusable bottles for liquids instead of juiceboxes, as well as reusable forks, spoons, or even sporks, can help reduce the amount of plastic and paper going into our landfills every day. Plus, you can still stick a sweet note in their lunch box.

Extra Credit! First Day Outfit:

It feels great as a kid to go shopping for the first day of schools’ outfit. Second-hand stores are a great way to recycle old clothing and buy something “new” for your kids to wear, at a fraction of the cost of brand-new clothing.

For those of you with kids going off to college (or if you are a college student yourself), check out our tips for getting your dorm room ready.

As the hot nights of summer are coming to an end, fall is bringing cooler weather. It may be time to think about adding a blanket to your bed. Here are our new offerings for staying cozy and warm on chilly autumn nights:

Thermal Blanket

Starting at $85 MSRP

Perfect for lightweight warmth or for layering in colder seasons. The pebbly textured fabric is 100% organic cotton in a crepe weave. Offered from crib to king sizes.